Tourism campaigns: More fun in the Philippines.

An aggressive global campaign promoting fun and Filipino hospitality is set to tackle poor awareness of the Philippines’ offerings, the country’s Tourism Secretary said in Los Angeles this week.

The Philippine Department of Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez, Jr, told industry and media that many consider a poor image as the main obstacle to tourism growth in the Philippines.

“But that’s a lot of BS,” he said.

“The problem is plain and simple lack of awareness. You can actually walk into a travel agency in Spain (in Spain - the country that colonized the Philippines for 400 years) and you will not find a single brochure on the Philippines.

“Even [in America], you get things like, ‘The Philippines, that’s in the Bahamas right?’”

According to Mr Jimenez, this lack of awareness stems from a number of factors, the most obvious being a modest budget, which although now at its highest in Philippine history is still “invisible” when compared to competitors.

“We haven’t really spent behind our image. So our negative image is actually larger than our positive. We’re like velcro, everything sticks.”

The launch of the ‘It’s more fun in the Philippines’ campaign “has energized the system”, the Tourism Secretary said, giving people a loud and clear reason to go to the Philippines.

“It’s not just a descriptor, like ‘amazing’ or ‘incredible’. It is for all intents and purposes, a comparative, competitive claim. It’s like saying, ‘Name it, whatever it is, it’s more fun in the Philippines’.

Mr Jimenez announced the Philippine Department of Tourism will be actively growing its global footprint, playing ads in airports, using billboards and posters across the world from New York to London and even Norway.

“All of this will be unfolding in the balance of this year…and brochures in Spain. That’s my personal crusade.”

Stay tuned to e-Travel Blackboard for more news from the frank Philippine Tourism Secretary.